The Good Book: The Missing Scenes
by Fibee
Summary: The bits they shouldn't have missed out of The Good Book, the reunion episode.


Author's Note: This started out as a sequel to my last story, I Love Her Too, but then took on a life of it's own and became the bits they shouldn't have left out of The Good Book. Perhaps I'll still write a sequel to I Love Her Too one day.

The Good Book: The Missing Scenes

It is several years now since I left. I was only supposed to be gone temporarily, to look after my ill father. But life overtook me, as it is wont to do, and here I was, three years later, on a bus bound for Coopers Crossing. We were running late and good old DJ managed to get a radio link so that all the bus passengers could join in with the festivities.

As I sit there, enjoying the lulling sound of the bus engine, listening to the singing and merriment coming over the radio, I think about Coopers Crossing. I hadn't really missed it after the first few weeks of being away. There was so much to do in the city, what with my father being ill and then being offered a position at the hospital there. I felt guilty when the invitation for today's celebration arrived and I realised that I had barely given my friends a second thought in months.

My mind drifts back to the days of my life in the Crossing – Vic and Nancy in the pub. Emma running the garage. Sam, DJ, Kate and Geoff at work. Kate and Geoff. After months of dancing around each other, pretending they didn't feel anything for each other, snapping at one another, arguing over anything and everything, they had finally got their acts together, admitted their feelings and got married. I was sad to lose Kate as my housemate, but I was pleased she was so happy and like I said, much as I tried to keep out of it, I would have liked to have banged their heads together and made them see sense sooner.

Now they had a baby girl and were living their lives in Coopers Crossing. Happy. And what had I got? My career. I no longer had a sick father as he had died some months ago. The pain from his death was still raw. And I was feeling rather restless. There was nothing keeping me in the city any longer apart from my job, but I could be a doctor anywhere. Was it time for a change?

It is as I am half-lost in this blend of daydream and the festivities, that the bus lurches and skids and I am aware we have hit something.

In the confusion that follows I am aware that people are hurt, they need my help. I stand up, my head feels wuzzy (it is only later that I learn I banged it on the rail in front of my when we crashed). I know I should be helping people but I'm not quite sure what to do. People are leaving the bus so I follow them. The air outside is hot but fresher than the stale stuff on the bus. I breathe in a few times and it seems to help. I go around checking people over, trying to help the best I can. In the confusion I'm sure I saw George Baxter, but I have patients to tend to so I don't think much of it.

Someone has got on the radio to DJ because within what seems like minutes, the familiar roar of the Nomad can be heard overhead and there is Sam – no, it's not Sam, it's- a pilot I don't recognise. But there is Geoffrey. And another doctor I don't know.

Back at the hospital chaos reigns. I am still trying to be useful – heaven knows you need all the help you can get in this place when something like this happens and there are more patients in one afternoon than you would usually see in a week. But my head is growing fuzzier by the minute and when Geoffrey takes hold of my arm and says "no you don't, you are a patient today", for once in my life I don't argue with him.

* * *

A little while later I wake up in a hospital bed and at first I think I must still be dreaming because staring down at me, a concerned look on his face, is Tom Callaghan. Love of my life. No, wait, I have to stop thinking of him like that. That was years ago. Even when he returned from Africa and rejoined the RFDS for a while it was sort of understood that we were friends. Just friends.

"Hi Chris," he says and smiles.

"Tom!" I say.

"How are you doing?" A pretty stupid question considering I was lying in a hospital bed with a dressing on my head, but I suppose it must be one I'd asked countless times as a doctor. He was just being a doctor.

"I'm OK" I manage and he perches on the edge of my bed.

Tom leans over and gently brushes the hair out of my face. "I've missed you Chris."

"Yeah?" I ask. He's been back in Africa for the past year and I've hardly heard from him.

"Yeah."

"Me too," I tell him. I never was any good at hiding things when it came to Tom Callaghan.

We talk for a while and Tom tells me about life in Africa.

"It sounds like you do some wonderful work out there," I say.

"Oh, Chris, you've no idea. Some of the people there are just desperate for help."

Tom stays until Kate tells him visiting is over and he needs to let me rest. He tells me he's checked into the pub and kisses my forehead, telling me to sleep well.

* * *

The following morning Geoffrey decides I am well enough to leave (or perhaps he just needs the bed space) so I am discharged.

For a moment I stand and watch Geoff and Kate work and the way they interact with each other. I like to think I had a hand in it. In some small way. Handing out advice here and there. Counselling Kate after another fight. Much I would have liked to have just banged their heads together and be done with it. Picking up my bag, I leave the hospital to stroll down the street and see whether Vic and Nancy have any rooms left.

Without any apparent sense of irony, Vic hands me the key for room 6, the very room I lived in when I first came to Coopers Crossing all those years ago.

"Good to see you again, Doc" is all he says.

Home Sweet Home.

I lie on the bed for a while and there is a knock at the door.

"Come in," I call too tired to get up and open it.

The door opens and Tom enters the room.

"Budge up," he says and comes settles himself next to me on the single bed. He slides his arm underneath me and waits for me to get comfortable. We still fit well, I think to myself.

"So you're up and about then?" he asks and laughs. "Or something close to it?"

"Geoff decided I was safe to be let loose on the street of Coopers Crossing," I say smiling. "You know that this was my room when I first moved here?"

"Really?" says Tom. "Home sweet home."

We lie still for a while, then Tom kisses the top of my head.

"I really have missed you, you know. Come back with me."

I move my head to look up at him. "To Africa?"

"Yeah. Why not?"

I shrug. Why not indeed, I think.

"Think about it," says Tom. "I'll take you to the ball tonight. You can let me know later on."

"Nothing like putting a girl on the spot Tom," I say, only half joking.

Tom gives me a squeeze, then reclaims his arm and eases himself off the bed. I get up too. At the door he puts his hands on my shoulders and looks into my eyes.

"Think about it Chris," he says.

"I will," I say.

He leans down and kisses me gently on the lips.

"I'll pick you up at seven."

Tom heads back to his room and I close the door behind him. My head is spinning and not just from the remains of yesterday's concussion. I know I had been thinking about a change, but one as big as Africa? On the other hand though, why not? My tenure is almost up at the hospital in Melbourne and there's nothing really keeping me there. Zoe is at university in Perth – she said she wanted to travel some more – so she's a plane ride away anyway. Plus, it wouldn't be forever.

The way Tom held me, said he's missed me, the kiss – perhaps he still loves me the way I've never stopped loving him. And if he doesn't? Well, we've always been great mates.

I decide I need a shower.

Standing under Old Faithful, letting the water run over me, I suddenly make a decision.

I'm going.

* * *

On the dot of seven o'clock, there is a knock at my door and when I open it, Tom is standing there looking relaxed and handsome in a casual jacket, shirt and trousers. He bends and kisses me, just as gently as before. I smile.

"Come in a minute Tom," I say. I want to talk to him before we get caught up with everyone else.

He steps into the room and closes the door behind him.

"So?" he says. "Have you thought? Are you coming with me?"

He looks so nervous I have to smile at him. I take a breath.

"Yes," I say. "And yes. I'll come with you."

Tom beams at me. He wraps his arms around me, picks me up and spins me around.

"Oh Chris, that's wonderful, I'm so happy," he says, and then he's kissing me again, but deeper this time, with passion and I kiss him back.

We break apart.

"I love you," he says, his arms still around me.

"I love you too Tom," I say.

We kiss again and as we pull apart I catch sight of the time on the clock.

"We should go," I say. "Everyone's expecting it."

Tom takes my hand and I follow him onto the landing.

* * *

At the dance the new nurse, Jackie, has set up a visitors' book by the door for everyone to write their addresses in so she can keep in touch with people.

"You first," I say to Tom, wondering who will pick up on what I'm hinting at. "Then I'll know what to write."

As I finish copying the address below where Tom has written, Kate appears at my side. She glances at the book and looks at me quizzically. I take her arm and move over to the side of the room.

"Tom asked me to go to Africa with him," I tell her.

Kate's eyes widen.

"Really?"

"And I said yes. He's still in love with me Kate, and I still love him."

Kate squeals with excitement.

"I think that's maybe why I'm not married yet. I guess no one could quite compare to Tom Callaghan."

"I'm so happy for you!" says Kate, pulling me into a hug. Her grin is almost as big as mine. "I can't believe you two actually made it in the end!"

The night passes in a blur of catching up with old friends, music and laughter. As Vic calls the last dance Tom takes my hand and holds me tightly. There, in Tom's arms, in Coopers Crossing, I can't help but think I've finally found my way home.


End file.
